Pick of the week: Crafted Drafts

Two things often happen when you walk into a beer store-you reach for the steadfast label you know and love, or you take a gamble and grab something new and interesting.

Beth Stallings, Columbus Crave

Two things often happen when you walk into a beer store-you reach for the steadfast label you know and love, or you take a gamble and grab something new and interesting. Go for the latter and two things could happen-you discover a new beer to love, or you're stuck with a six-pack of something you don't.

Enter new craft beer store Crafted Drafts in Gahanna. This tiny plaza storefront packs a lot of beer into a tight space, with more than 600 varieties to choose from. But it's not just the amount of beer owner Mike Troy offers that makes it special, it's the way he sells it.

Crafted Drafts offers the largest single-bottle beer lineup around. Head to the right side of the store for shelf after shelf of open stock bottles and cans, all priced individually and organized by styles. On the left side are ready-to-go six packs, plus a decent selection of meads and ciders. In the middle is a hearty variety of seasonal ales, ready to go in six-packs or own their own.

I popped in this week and found Troy ready and waiting to help me build just the right six-pack. I tend to drink wheat styles and IPAs, I explained, while my husband loves white ale. Our tastes meet somewhere around saison.

Carefully considering what's on his shelves, Troy reached for Avery White Rascal for my husband, an Omegang Witte for me, and a handful of saisons (from Omegang and Hinterland) for us to share. With each recommendation, Troy could recount the beer's style, story and even suggest a great food pairing. And he was full of fun beer facts, especially when it came to talk of Christmas-style ales, pointing to a few bottles he said could be aged like wine.

So, if you're in the neighborhood or just in the market for a new beer this season, I definitely suggest stopping by.

To keep up with what's new, look for Crafted Drafts on Twitter and Instagram where they'll post newcomers and specials there or four times a week, Troy says.